


Saved

by theneonpineapple



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angels, Castiel (Supernatural)'s Handprint, Coda, Gen, POV Castiel, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 00:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14008626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theneonpineapple/pseuds/theneonpineapple
Summary: So, technically, the second thing Dean ever says to Castiel is, "fuck off".





	Saved

**Author's Note:**

> we were ROBBED of this scene and the scenes that follow are. they're just cass being cass. poor angel was promised a servant of heaven amd got dean "authority issues" winchester

Castiel is the only one of the angels deployed to storm Hell who is still standing. There is no pride in that. Pravruil, who had led the charge, had been killed first. Artiel and Elemiah, he'd last seen fighting back to back, their wings outstretched, their blades gleaming. Those he hadn't seen fall, he felt fall quiet. A sudden absence from the Host, and from the link formed among all the angels chosen for this most vital mission, not dissimilar to the link a garrison shared, but the angels did not come solely from his garrison.

He sees the wisdom, now. By choosing angels across different garrisons, they have made certain that no one garrison is left in ruin as the losses are sustained. And as he approaches the Pit, that great yawning chasm in which souls are twisted to become abominations, he finally considers that his garrison alone will have a survivor. 

Perhaps this is for the best. They have already lost Anael. Insignificant though Castiel himself is, it will be good for his garrison if they have one less position left unfilled. And if he truly rescues the Righteous Man, perhaps that means his Father wanted him to restore the honor of their garrison.

Zachariah had expressed how furious Michael and, of course, their Father were when Anael fell. When they had searched for years fruitlessly for the Grace she had torn from herself.

Maybe this success is a sign of restored favor.

It is this, this realization that perhaps he can now redeem himself and his closest kin in the eyes of the Father, that lends him strength to press on, depleted though he is.

He rips through dozens of demons on the final descent. His Grace is weakened from the infernal power surrounding him, but he can feel something. A thrum of purpose, glorious and holy. Something drawing him deeper into the Pit. Leading him forth.

When he finds the soul of the Righteous Man, he understands what that pull was.

This soul... it makes sense that this soul is the one that can save the world, the one that can stop his brother from being freed. This soul is the brightest, most beautiful soul in all Creation. Castiel has been watching humanity since long before they were humans. Nothing compares to this soul, corrupted as it is by the breaking of the First Seal and the demonic influences upon it.  
Castiel reaches for the Righteous Man.

Dean Winchester lowers a long, vicious looking knife. Turns his head. But doesn't actually face Castiel.

Hell is not so limited as the mortal plane. Souls appear as they truly are, stripped of their external appearances. But before they become the abominations that populated the rest of Hell, they appear the way they would in Heaven: the way in which they were in life.

Dean Winchester has eyes with which to gaze upon Castiel in the way that Castiel has feet with which to walk upon the ground in Hell: he doesn't, but the illusion of the thing is near enough as the truth of it.

"Are you here to kill me?" Dean Winchester asks. His voice is rough. His eyes still don't flick to Castiel.

"No," says Castiel.

"Then fuck off," the Righteous Man says.

"I am here to Save you."

Dean Winchester, the Righteous Man, the only one who can end what he himself has begun, turns his back entirely on Castiel.

"Then fuck off doubly."

Castiel reaches out - he does not have human hands because he is not human, and has never Lived so does not appear as he would in Life, but when he leaves a mark on this soul, a mark to claim it even as he stitches back together with threads of his own Grace a soul previously marked by Hell, it is shaped like a human hand.

And he knows then he will have human hands, because Dean Winchester will have need of him on Earth, and Castiel will serve his Father through this strange, fragile creature.

As he pieces Dean Winchester back together, body and soul, he knows this memory will not remain. Salvation was too much for any soul to conceptualize fully. He will get a second chance to introduce himself to the Righteous Man. And without this corrosion of his soul, Dean Winchester would not resist his Salvation, or his Destiny.

-

After the incident in the gas station, Castiel may be forced to concede that Dean is still resistant to Heaven. 

That's fine. He is ignorant. He can wait for Castiel's vessel to say yes so Castiel can appear to him again and explain -

There's a tug at his Grace.

A psychic. A psychic is attempting to conjure up an image of him. Using Dean's psychometrics.

_"Who are you?"_

"I am Castiel," he says, "and you are venturing where you ought not tread."

_"Show me your face."_

"Turn back," he urges her. "You do not understand the magnitude of this thing you attempt. Turn back, Pamela Barnes."

But as it is commanded, the gap between the spheres opens. 

Pamela Barnes screams as the mere distant image of his Grace rips through her fragile eyes. 

He'd tried to warn her.

Now Dean is frightened. Castiel will have to appear to him in a vessel _soon_.

-

While Castiel, his vessel acquired, is still trying to convince his superiors to allow him to appear to Dean, Dean seeks his purpose of his own volition. He summons Castiel.

Dean fights. He'd fought in Hell too, when Castiel gripped his soul and raised it free of the filth of the Pit, before he could begin that sacred process of rearticulating that which Hell had flayed asunder. Castiel twists the knife free and puts Dean's protector in a deep sleep.

"We need to talk," he says.

"Who are you?"

Ah. That explains the knife. Dean does not know if he has summoned Castiel properly. 

Castiel assures him, "Castiel."

Dean's eyes narrow. "What are you?"

Hmm. That is troubling. Had he summoned Castiel without knowing what he was? And how did he think any creature but an angel could pull a soul from damnation and restore every atom of its earthly body?

"I'm an angel of the Lord."

Dean sneers.

Castiel realizes, perhaps belatedly, that there is no Faith in this man. How can this be? The Righteous Man, faithless?

"And why would an angel rescue me from Hell?"

 _I healed you_ , Castiel wants to say. _Why do you persist in this belief that you ought not to be granted Salvation when it has been bestowed upon you, when I have tried to fix the corruption that led you to such doubt?_

Dean Winchester has no faith. Not in the Father. Not in himself.

In fact, Castiel learns, the only thing that Dean Winchester has Faith in, a true deep belief and _trust_ in, is that something always, always goes wrong.

Castiel does not know how to save Dean from Doubt.

**Author's Note:**

> ah, early days cass, your optimism...
> 
> aaaaanyway go read my jessica lives pilot au bc im workiny on "wendigo" when im not on that 1am ambiguously deancass gen shit


End file.
